Substack CEO says he’s ‘very sorry’ about laying off 13 people

Substack is the most recent tech firm to announce layoffs, with the corporate’s CEO Chris Finest tweeting on Wednesday that he’s letting 13 employees go. In keeping with Axios, that’s round 14 p.c of Substack’s workforce. In his letter and follow-up tweets, Finest cites “market situations” as the explanation behind the layoffs.

He additionally admits that the transfer could also be a shock to some workers. “Not so way back, I advised you all that our plan was to develop the crew and never do layoffs,” he says, additionally noting that the corporate is “nonetheless hiring for particular key roles” and has cash saved. Nonetheless, Finest says that the corporate wants to alter techniques, because it might be going through “an prolonged interval” the place the economic system goes from dangerous to worse. He says that the layoffs are one in every of a number of adjustments the corporate has made to verify it’s in “a powerful monetary place.”

In keeping with The New York Instances, a few of the workers laid off have been concerned in human sources and author assist. The report additionally says that Substack just lately halted efforts to safe funding from buyers, however that its income remains to be rising.

In April, Substack confronted a minor controversy round its hiring efforts when its vp of communications tweeted a hiring link whereas noting a particular kind of worker she stated the corporate didn’t need. “When you’re a Twitter worker who’s contemplating resigning since you’re fearful about Elon Musk pushing for much less regulated speech… please don’t come work right here,” she stated. The corporate has traditionally stated that it locations a variety of significance on free speech.

Substack is way from the one firm shedding a big share of its employees previously month or two. Firms like Tesla, Netflix, Klarna, Higher.com, and Cameo have all lower jobs, as have a number of giant crypto companies.